Mayor Speaks For First Time About Loss In Governor's Race

After more than a year campaigning to become North Carolina’s next governor, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory is turning his focus back to the Queen City.

Early Monday, McCrory spoke with reporters for the first time since his loss to Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue. He said he hasn’t been avoiding the media since his concession speech Tuesday night. He said he was just busy taking care of post-election business.

In almost 20 years of public service, McCrory had never given a concession speech until Election Day, and he certainly hadn’t planned on giving one.

"We thought we'd win the campaign up until the first returns started coming in," he said.

Regardless, McCrory said he’s proud of the campaign he ran. He said he kept all but one of the campaign promises he made. He said he didn’t neglect Charlotte – he made it to all of the city council meetings. He said he also ran a clean campaign. The one promise he couldn’t keep was actually winning the election.

McCrory said he blames the loss mainly on straight-ticket voting, where voters could pick all candidates in partisan elections from either the Republican or the Democratic Party with one click. A number of people voted straight-ticket Democratic at the urging of President-elect Barack Obama and his campaigners.

“The straight ticket voting was not expected and was not in the polling. We should have won Charlotte-Mecklenburg by a large amount, but the Obama-paid machine at the grassroots level overwhelmed us,” he said.

McCrory lost Mecklenburg County by 385 votes.

The mayor said he’s made a decision on whether he’ll run for reelection next year, but he wouldn’t share his plans. He said his focus now is on finding a private-sector job and working on the new economic hardships now facing Charlotte.

"Right now, I’m concentrating on keeping Wachovia jobs in Charlotte, on fixing the criminal justice system and fixing our roads," he said.

McCrory said he’ll hold Perdue to her campaign commitments to Charlotte, including a promise to open an office in the Queen City.

“I want roads more than an office. I want (district attorneys) and prison space more than an office. But if it takes an office to make that first move, I'll be visiting that office a lot," he said.

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